Kuranda Railways

In our second day in Cairns and 6th day in Australia, we had a lovely day in the rain forests of Cairns and had chance to get to know the Aborigin art and life. After having a lovely breakfast in our biiig room at Pulman Palm Cove hotel, we met our daily guide at the hotel lobby, a lovely lady “Carole” from “Cairns Guides Direct”, who was with us whole day. First she took us, to Kuranda Scenic Train Station.

The station

“Just to visit” vagon at the station

Very similar to the train we have been last summer in Norwegian Fyords (which you can read here), this train took us from a very nice scenic and lovely route to top to Kuranda Village. Again very similar to it, this train was also 18th century nostalgic experience, with some stopovers for photography. One of the easiest ways to explore the area with children. Moreover, the station itself is worth to visit, so allow a good 20 minutes to yourself, before your scheduled train arrives.

Nature is so nice with the historic train

Reaching the top

The final stop of the train was at Kuranda, a very small Aborigin village, a bit loaded with tourists, but nice to see how Aborigins live today and find some Aborigin artworks and clothes.

Best way to travel with children

The route plan

Also the plan of the route, and the information given, provide to feel the real taste of Australia.

The return from Kuranda to down, was with Kuranda Skyrail, which is another lovely experience with our son.

View from skyrail

The skyrail station itself was very calm and convenient, no queues etc. It is about 7 km long going over the rain forest and the best part is, there are some stations on the way, where you get off, do a bit of walking around to explore rain forest plants and animals, and get on again for the next stop. There is even one very small, interactive museum in one of the stops, to teach children (and us) how the rain forests form, what is their importance and what kind of plants and animals live around.

Very large trees of the forest…

…with some very large leaves

The final stop of the skyrail was at a station, very close to Tjapukai Aborigin Park, which is another perfect experience to do with children that I will be telling in my next post.